Fuel control valve



May 16, 1933. F E HAR'RlS 1,909,673

FUEL CONTROL VALVE Filed June 2o, 1929 gru/WMM www? Patented May 16, 1933 VUNITED STATES Parser orties 'A if' FLOYD E. HARRIS, OF FLINT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL MOTORS CORPORA- TION, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A. CORPORATION F DELAWARE FUEL CONTROL VALVE y l Application mea June zo, 1929. 'serial No. 372,409.

This vinvention relates particularly to presportion of a furnace wall provided with an sure-controlled'valve devices suitable for use opening 12,-through which a jet of flame in, for example, those types of burner apmay be projected from a burner 13, of any A s paratus in which'fuel and air are supplied preferred design. rThis burner may be supunder some degree of heat or pressure. In plied with air through a conduit 14 and such apparatus there ordinarily are unavoidwith oil through a conduit 15, 15",-a needle able fluctuations in the pressure in the sup- Valve 16 or its equivalent being employed to ply lines; and, while the burner may be adcontrol the flow of oil into an inner tube 17-of justed for a mixture of fuel and air apsaid burner. Where a common pump is empropriate to definite pressure conditions, ployed to supply air to several burners, or Variations in the pressures have been liable the like, the air pressure may naturallyvary to cause the mixture to become too rich or according to the number of burners or ma- `too lean. This control apparatus is an imchines in operation at a given time, as also 5 provement uponV apparatus shown and with the viscosity of the air as determined 3- claimed in my pending application S. N. by temperature conditions; and similar or 154,481,filed Dec. 13, 1926, and it is designed opposite variations may take place in the primarily to insure greater uniformity than oil line 15 or its equivalent. The air pipe'll was obtainable by said apparatus in the is according/ly shown as equipped with an 2 proportioning of the ingredients of a comair control organization 18, immaterial to e bustible mixture, regardless of considerable the present invention; and, in order to renfluctuations in the supply line pressures,- der the delivery of oil, or its equivalent, dean oil-supply valve being smoothly and r-ependent upon the pressure of the air, or its liably moved toward its closed position by equivalent, as the air pressure may be transeither a rise in pressure in the oil feed line mitted through a side passage or conduit v19, l?? or by a fall in pressure in the air feed line. the present disclosure includes a controlor-l The present invention, however, includes ganization 20,-to which the present invena novel valve organization and anovel beltion is, in fact, restricted. lows organization which, although designed Referring now to Figures 2 and 8, apreand especially suitable for conjoint use are ferred valve organization is shown as com- -fg believed to be respectively capable of numerprising a valve seat elementy 21, generally ous alternative uses. f cylindrical in formand including a lateral Other objects of this invention, including opening 22, which may be in constant comvarious details of the oil control organizaL munication with the oil pipe 15"; and the tion referred to, mayk be best appreciated flow of oil through the opening 22 may 'be T135 from the following description of an illusdependent upon the relative positiontherein trative embodiment of a complete fuel conof a tubular valve element 23. This is shown trol organization including the same, taken as provided with a longitudinal passage 24 in connection with the appended claims and and with a transverse opening or openings the accompanying drawing. 25, positioned between annular collars on Figure 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic gensaid valve element; and it is kadapted to be eral View, with parts broken away to a sublongitudinally shifted, relatively to the open-V stantially vmedian vertical plane. ing-22 in the valve seat, by means such as a Figure 2 is a vertical sectional detail View, rod 26. onl an enlarged scale, taken substantially as The passage 24 is shown as -opening at its indicated by the' line 2 2 of Figure 1. outlet end 27, opposite the attachment ofthe vFigure 3 is a horizontal sectional detail rod 26, into communication with the pipe 15; View, taken substantially as indicated by thc and, in case the rod 26 is to be manipulated in line 3-3 of Figure 2. accordance with a pressure differential, ythe Referring first to the general relationship passage 24 may inwardly communicatefwith of parts shown in Figure 1, 11 indicates a an additional lateral opening or openings 28, lo

28,-admitting oil pressure into a variablevolume chamber 29, or the like. ln the region of the opening or openings 25 (shown as provided by a transverse boring of the tubular valve element 23) there is shown a peripheral groove or channel 30, preferably corresponding in diameter thereto and/or to the diameter of the valve seat opening 22; and the tubular valve element 23 is also shown as provided with separate series of annular collars 31 surrounding the same both above and below the opening or openings 25,-said collars being separated by additional and comparatively narrow grooves 32 in such manner as to function somewhat similarly to rings upon apiston and to assure against leakage, in either direction, externally of said valve element. .The mentioned grooves also tend to obviate sticking and to assure proper guidance of the valve element; and it will be seen that the described construction assures a substantial balance of longitudinal pressures,- practically eliminating any tendency to react7 or drag or flutter on the part of. the valve element and enabling the same reliably to respond to the movements of the rod 26, or its equivalent.

For uses such as those herein more particularly referred to, the variable-volume chamber 29,` adapted to receive oil, and an additional.variable-volume chamber 33, may be respectively provided by means such as a metallic bellows 34 and a fabric bellows 35,- the latter being shown as of larger diameter. These bellows may be respectively secured to a fixed bellows-carrying smaller plate 3G (within which the valve element 2l may be seated) and to a larger fixed plate 37,-a floating intermediate wall 39 being common to the two bellows although having a lesser area of exposure within the bellows 34 than within the bellows 35. The plates 3G and 37 are shown as rigidly retained in parallelism and in their desired spaced relationship by means of a housing element 40.

The floating intermediate wall 39 may advantageously take the form of a composite flat plate comprising an impervious and entire upper element 4l, a stiffening plate 42 and a lesser bellows attachment plate 43,-the latter being shown as apertured to receive the rod 26, retained by means of nuts 44, 45; and the stiflening plate 42 may, if desired, be provided with guide elements 46. These are shown as extending through openings 47 in the housing 40, and either these guide openings or additional openings 48 may be adapted topermit free access of air, within said housing, to the exteriors of said bellows. The fixed bellows-carrying plate 36 is shown as provided with a threaded boss 49, for use in connecting pipe 15 thereto, conditionally to admit oil through the valve seat element 2l; and larger bellows-carrying plate 37, shown as cooperating with the housing 40 in the retention of bellows 35, may be provided with stops 50, limiting the collapsing movement of said bellows, and/or with a conduit 5l, for the attachment of a gauge or the like, not shown.

Any annular passage provided at 52 in valve seat 2lpreferably corresponds in longitudinal extent with the diameter of openings 22- and 25; flats suggested at 53 and 54 are optional; and although the described valve organization might be subject to remote control by other means, and although the pressure-responsive organization comprising floating plate 39, by which the rod 26 is manipulable, might be employed for various uses, in the described construction and assembly, the plate 39 being subjected to the opposite pressures of the respectivefiuids to which its unequal surfaces are exposed, and the valve element 23 being easily movable in either longitudinal direction, the sensitiveness of the described oil control'organization is favorable to a very exact regulation of the feed of air and oil to the separate burner v13 or its equivalent. pressure of the air thus ordinarily assures corresponding regulation of the rate of oil feed, it will be understood that relative areas of the movable wall which are exposed to opposite pressures are to be standardized with reference to a desired ratio of feed,-the viscosities of the respective fluids being duly considered in effecting such standardization.

Although the foregoing description has included details of but one complete embodiment of the present invention, it should be understood that not only various features thereof might be independently employedbut also that numerous modifications might easily be devised all within the scope of the prese-nt invention.

I claim:

l. F or use in a system of the general character described, a pressure-responsive unit comprising: oppositely expansible chambers having in common a floating wall; means so admitting fluids to said chambers as to eX- pose said wall to opposing pressures thereof and motion-imparting means connected with said wall and extending vtoward a valve element,-said bellows being carried by opposite and substantially parallel plates one of which provides guidance means for saidfloating wall. y

2. A pressure regulator comprising a pair of opposed plates, means for holding said plates in fixed spaced relation with respect to each other, an expansible bellows secured to each of said plates,a floating wall secured to the adjacent ends of said bellows and con* stituting the sole means for transmitting pressure from one to the other, means for supplying :Huid underV pressure to the interior of each of said bellows, said means including ports extending through said plates,

Since regulation of the its ilo

connecting said plates and holding them in fixed spaced relation with respect to each other, said housing including a portion of larger cross section for connection with the larger plate and a portion of lesser cross section for connection with the smaller plate and a shoulder connecting said portions, an expansible bellows secured to each of said plates, a floating wall secured to the adjacent ends of each of said bellows and constituting the sole means for transmitting pressure from one to the other, means for supplying fluid under pressure t-o the interiors of each of said bellows, and guide mea-ns including interfitting parts on said wall and shoulder for confining said wall for reciprocating movement only.

4. In a pressure regulator, a p'air of bellows provided with opposed closed ends, a spacer between and in engagement with said ends, a frame supporting said bellows, said spacer and frame carrying interlitting guide means confining said spacer to reciprocating movement.

. 5. In a pressure regulator, a pair of bellows provided with opposed closed ends, a spacer between and in engagement with said ends, said spacer and the end of one of said bellows being apertured, and a valve having an operating portion passing through the aperture in said end and projecting into the aperture in said spacer, and securing means on said portion received in said last-named aperture.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

FLOYD E. HARRIS. 

